Satria fighting arts

[Midnight-shadow]

I'm in the process of looking for a new Martial Art to study and I came across Satria Yoga and Fighting Arts, which apparently originated with the Vedic culture of Northern India. I am very ignorant when it comes to Indian Martial Arts and I had never heard of Satria before. Has anyone else experienced this style before?

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

If this is Steven Benitez system then it's base is Indonesian Silat.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Like Brian said, it's the school of Steve Benitez and yes it's based on his experience training in Silat.

It is a very traditional approach to Silat. I see them using alot of the low stances like depok and sempok which I'm personally not a fan of, I trained them in the past but I never found any value in them. But that's just a little example, just try it and see if you like it.

Thanks. Would you say the training is more forms based or fighting based? The sempok stance you talk about looks very odd to me. It looks like a deeper version of a unicorn stance found in a lot of Chinese Martial Arts. I never really liked that particular stance either, even as a transition I can't see much value in it.

 

[Midnight-shadow]

Silat has both forms and fighting and I can say that most styles get the applications out of those forms or the forms serve as some sort of drill to get certain movements in your system.

The Silat I was exposed to had little to none forms and was focussed on practical applications.

What area are you from? Maybe we can point out a couple of other schools for you to check out.

I live in Sussex, in the South of England. Here is the Satria group I was looking at: http://www.warrior-arts-fitness.com/

 

[skribs]

Like Brian said, it's the school of Steve Benitez and yes it's based on his experience training in Silat.

It is a very traditional approach to Silat. I see them using alot of the low stances like depok and sempok which I'm personally not a fan of, I trained them in the past but I never found any value in them. But that's just a little example, just try it and see if you like it.

I've found lower stances to be better for training, even if I don't use them as much in sparring. They're useful for training leg strength and dexterity. I've tried a few styles of forms in Taekwondo, some which utilize lower, deeper stances and others which utilize walking stances, and I've found I sweat a lot more when doing the forms with deeper stances.

My master has a background in special forces, and he's selected the forms with deeper stances. We use deeper stances in most of our self defense drills (sometimes using a shallower stance depending on the distance we need to cover. The practical benefits of deeper stances, I've found, is:

• More powerful base than a shallow stance (but shallow stances are quicker)
• Easier to close short distances with a large step into a deep stance than with small steps
• In a deep stance you have the option to change levels up or down. In a shallow stance you can only go down.

Of course, if I'm misunderstanding and you're talking about stances in which your rump is only inches off the ground, then maybe I could see your point (although they would probably help with leg strength and conditioning). Or if you also work out and don't skip leg day, then maybe you want to opt for the shallower stances because you don't need the conditioning of the deep stances. But these are the benefits I see.

 

[oftheherd1]

I've found lower stances to be better for training, even if I don't use them as much in sparring. They're useful for training leg strength and dexterity. I've tried a few styles of forms in Taekwondo, some which utilize lower, deeper stances and others which utilize walking stances, and I've found I sweat a lot more when doing the forms with deeper stances.

My master has a background in special forces, and he's selected the forms with deeper stances. We use deeper stances in most of our self defense drills (sometimes using a shallower stance depending on the distance we need to cover. The practical benefits of deeper stances, I've found, is:

• More powerful base than a shallow stance (but shallow stances are quicker)
• Easier to close short distances with a large step into a deep stance than with small steps
• In a deep stance you have the option to change levels up or down. In a shallow stance you can only go down.

Of course, if I'm misunderstanding and you're talking about stances in which your rump is only inches off the ground, then maybe I could see your point (although they would probably help with leg strength and conditioning). Or if you also work out and don't skip leg day, then maybe you want to opt for the shallower stances because you don't need the conditioning of the deep stances. But these are the benefits I see.

Not closing short distances, but Jhoon Goo Rhee occasionally used to show us a way from a deep stance to spring forward using both feet, to jump a surprising distance. And he could do it several times in a row, quickly. He didn't push it but did demonstrate it a couple of times. I don't think any of us really tried it often either. It takes a lot of strength as well as speed. You could of course turn it into an attack if your opponent doesn't get out of the way, or cause him to do nothing but a fast, poorly controlled retreat.

Just a comment on deep stances, not specifically what the OP is asking for.

 

[skribs]

Not closing short distances, but Jhoon Goo Rhee occasionally used to show us a way from a deep stance to spring forward using both feet, to jump a surprising distance. And he could do it several times in a row, quickly. He didn't push it but did demonstrate it a couple of times. I don't think any of us really tried it often either. It takes a lot of strength as well as speed. You could of course turn it into an attack if your opponent doesn't get out of the way, or cause him to do nothing but a fast, poorly controlled retreat.

Just a comment on deep stances, not specifically what the OP is asking for.

I don't mean closing distances FROM a stance. I mean closing distances by stepping out into a deep stance.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

Like Malos1979 I utilize Sempok and Depok for lower leg training development and some movement into low Indonesian style takedowns but that is about it. It is great for the legs, knees and developing a unique style of leg strength with flexibility.

 

[skribs]

It's not really related to the question of the OP but yeah I do use deeper stances for leg training but that's about it.

Sempok is the stance/position below, just to give you an idea of the deep stances/positions in Silat.

In that case I'd say flexibility and dexterity is more important than strength in this particular stance style.